It is known that foamed polystyrene board is a highly effective thermal insulation material for use in building construction. It is also known to make a building exterior wall panel at the building site by first mounting the foam board as cladding on the building exterior sheathing, and then placing a reinforcing mesh on the outside surface of the foamed board and embedding the mesh in an acrylic adhesive coating material, thereby bonding the mesh to the board. The resulting composite exterior sheathing of the building comprises the polystyrene foam board, the adhesive coating, and the mesh embedded therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,469 Wood teaches constructing an exterior building wall panel away from the building site, using the foam board, the mesh and the acrylic coating. Metal attaching strips are inserted longitudinally into the board as seen in Prior Art FIGS. 1 and 2. The attaching strips may extend from the edge of the board and are used to attach the panel to the building.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,298 Nogradi teaches using a "C"-shaped strip as the metal attaching strip. As an improvement over Wood, the attaching strip of Nogradi can be installed in the board by transverse movement of the metal strip relative to the channel in the board.
Both the Wood and Nogradi panels use a supporting sheathing surface behind substantially their entire surface areas, as illustrated by the concrete blocks of Prior Art FIG. 2 and the sheathing (typically gypsum board) seen in Prior Art FIG. 1. Prior Art FIG. 3 shows a generic vertical cross-section of part of a building wall using the wall panel of Wood, and includes a building stud sheathed on both sides with gypsum board, with the exterior wall panel disposed on the outer supporting surface "S" of the outer layer of sheathing.
It is an object of this invention to provide improved exterior wall panels having the insulating properties and lighter weight advantages of light weight plastic foam.
It is another object to provide light weight structural wall panels having the insulating properties of light weight plastic foam.
It is still another object to provide wall structures which are lighter in weight, and are less costly than conventional wall structure systems.